A política estadual de meio ambiente e os resíduos sólidos urbanos: uma abordagem qualitativa em seis diferentes experiências em Minas Gerais

Abstract

Although the State Environmental Policy, through its laws, plans and programs, has been extremely important in the development of the disposal of municipal solid waste MSW especially from 2001 to 2011, this same Policy started to show the need of reassessment since 2005 when the actions to improve the MSW final destination have become less effective. According to FEAMs 2012 data, most of the cities which could not adapt or regularize their MSW final disposal systems are small cities that have up to 20.000 inhabitants. These cities still dispose their MSW in regular landfills or even in open areas. These cities are theoretically similar to each other considering technology, budget and even human resources. However, a variety of situations concerning MSW final disposal can be observed and several of these cities dispose of their MSW in landfills or in composting plant screening. Based on these facts, the main purpose of this work is to understand the main factors that would determine the State Environmental Policy concerning the MSW final disposal in the cities that have up to 20.000 inhabitants. Six cities in Minas Gerais were studied, public servants were interviewed and the MSW final disposal areas were visited. The most important results referring to the influence of institutional and political factors of these cities, their State programs as well as the role of society and the Public Ministry in the MSW final disposal demonstrate that the acts of the latter determined the situation in three of the referred cities. The lack of a City Secretary officer or department which would be responsible for environmental matters in small cities along with the lack of technical knowledge and ability to manage the MSW have a negative influence on the kind of environmental administration which can be seen in these specific cities. In spite of being important to the current situation of the MSW disposal, especially when it refers to the maintenance of a correct disposal system, the State programs related to the proper disposal of MSW did not determine the environmental adaptation/regularization in any of the cities studied.